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The MENA region is starting to witness a drastic increase in large-scale battery energy storage systems (“BESS”) projects, accompanying a soaring penetration of renewable energy. This has happened at a pace, which seems to have surprised many market analysts. In the past, forecasts for the MENA region showed a few GWh for the coming years at best.
The universal benefits of BESS apply just as strongly to the MENA region: they can support in harnessing the full potential of renewable energy by storing & shifting record low-cost PV or wind power generation to times of the day when demand for electricity is at its highest.
Most of the BESS systems are composed of securely sealed battery packs, which are electronically monitored and replaced once their performance falls below a given threshold. Batteries suffer from cycle ageing, or deterioration caused by charge–discharge cycles.
The rapid growth rate of energy storage in the MENA region, led by the GCC, is surprising many analysts. Saudi Arabia, in particular, is set to be the third biggest global BESS market after the USA and China in 2026.
Due to the wide range of BESS capabilities as mentioned above, Korean power system plans to provision BESS to relieve generation curtailment and to provide FR service in the short-term applications, and to maintain frequency stability by providing FFR service in a low-inertia system for the long-term applications.
Market mechanism Korea's BESS sector has experienced significant growth, with an installed capacity of 1.6 GW at the end of 2019 (Yoen, 2022). Despite initial economic challenges, government policies have driven BESS market expansion by fostering technology development and policy initiatives.
In total, 14 companies were involved, including HD Hyundai Electric, Hyosung Heavy Industries, LS Electric, Samsung SDI, LG Energy Solution, and others. HD Hyundai Electric announced the completion and start of operation of its 336MW BESS for the utility a couple of months ago.
(Li et al., 2023) BESS utilize several types of battery technologies, including Li-ion, lead-acid, redox flow, sodium-sulphur, zinc-bromine flow batteries, and solid-state batteries, with new ones continuously being introduced (Rahman, 2020).
The 103.5-megawatt (MW) landmark project will introduce cost-effective, large-scale, utility wind power to the UAE’s electricity grid, further diversifying the country’s energy mix and advancing its energy transition.
The project is also creating a foundation of critical scientific wind data, which will form the basis of the UAE’s next phase of development.
The other wind farm locations include Delma Island (27MW), and Al Sila in Abu Dhabi (27MW), as well as Al Halah in Fujairah (4.5MW). Previously, wind energy was not viable at utility scale due to low wind speeds in the UAE, but innovations within climate technology and UAE-led expertise have made power generation using wind possible.
The plant was implemented by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). The first phase of the project was commissioned on 22 October 2013. At the end of 2020 the solar PV complex reached a generating capacity of 1.013 GW with the aim to reach 5GW by 2030.
Similarly, E S is the maximum energy storage capacity in the specification of BESS. C-rate is used as the parameter to describe the charging and discharge speed, which is calculated as (3) C rate = I A Q S A h ≈ * E rate = P W E S W h = I A * U (V) ∫ 0 S (Q i A h * U i (V)) where the I and P are the current and power, respectively.
The mobility and flexibility of the system enables novel applications and deployments where BESS previously were unused due to the non-flexible solutions. The system is modular, meaning that the energy storage capacity can be quickly adapted depending on the application case, in contrast to larger and bulkier solutions.
There are prevailing physical combinations of BESS integration in the power system. For example, using BESS together with renewable energy resources creates opportunities for synergy, including PV, wind power, hydropower, and with other components such as fuel cells, flywheels, diesel generators, EVs, smart buildings, etc.
The system is built of two main blocks. The PCS building block, responsible for the main control of the mobile BESS. The nominal power rating of the PCS block is 225 kVA, with a maximum peak power in the peak shaving mode of 275 kW . The second block is the modular battery pack.
